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What is Google Video for Anyway?
By Lerone D. Wilson | August 30, 2006
I’ve already written about the grand charade that was the launch of Google Video. This was where they pretended that it was about independent film offerings, only to find out it was about video clips and music videos, so I won’t go there again. This isn’t another lambasting of their services either. I’ve never criticized Google for their video services, just what I saw as a little bit of deception in their launch. Nevertheless this time, I have good words to say.
I love how a year or two after everyone starts using a technology, computer program, or website, the mainstream media falls in love with it. If the media gave say, Africa the attention it gives YouTube and MySpace, there would be millions of people not dying and/or starving. Nevertheless, I digress.
The current social networking/file sharing phenomenon is truly amazing. All of the sudden it seems the great web/entertainment convergence we were promised in 1995 is actually happening. I can think of funny things I’ve seen on TV, or even haven’t seen (like a kid getting stuck in the net of a basketball rim as he tries to dunk from a trampoline), and voila - there they are on YouTube. Now I can’t watch much of my favorite television programming on the Internet just yet (probably because the broadcasters have the same ‘deer caught in the headlights’ looks on their faces as the recording industry did a few years ago), nevertheless watching assorted clips on YouTube can occupy me for hours. It’s like the best of America’s Funniest Home Videos without Bob Saget’s lame jokes, and smug sense of superiority.
Now where does Google fit into all of this?
Perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps I should have given Google the benefit of the doubt from the very beginning. Maybe they genuinely had envisioned Google Video as a platform for the independent film community to find distribution. Perhaps even the sudden disappearance of independent film from the main Google Video page, in favor of titles such as ‘Fat Kid Tries to take a Dive’, and ‘Preacher Farts’, were merely a response to the YouTube phenomenon. YouTube found a model that worked financially, and we all know how large corporations love to play follow the leader.
There is still some upside to the service, however. Even if your video isn’t featured on the main page, usually meaning it doesn’t contain images of someone getting hurt, a striptease, or body humor (using all 3 gets you extra points), Google will still host your video. This means that the bandwidth limitations that have led to limitations on the amount of video available on your website are no longer a stumbling block. In fact, as we speak I’m uploading bits of the Boondoggle video library to Google Video, for use on the Boondoggle Site.
The current video quality leaves a bit more to be desired, however beggars can’t be choosers. I would also bet money that someday Google will implement a way to search through the countless hours of video footage people are uploading, better than anyone else (that is what they do after all).
So cheers to Google Video. Although its not quite the service they promised at launch time, its still a good service. For independent producers, however don’t open up that bottle of champagne just yet… you’ll just hear the same old line here that you will at many other venues. We’ll host your screening… but bring your own audience.
Topics: Film/Video, Internet/Computing |